The present invention relates to a new and improved snowshoe and more particularly to an improved snowshoe frame, an improved decking, improved means for tieing the decking to the frame, an improved binding construction, and means for coupling the binding to the snowshoe.
A wide variety of snowshoes are commercially available. A description of many of these snowshoes is included in an article "How to Buy Snowshoes -- Fastenings, Fittings and Function," Backpacker, volume 3, #4, pages 62-71, Winter Edition, 1976. Many of these snowshoes employ wooden frames that are subject to warping and to structural fatigue, especially at bends in the frame. Wooden frames also require constant care and refinishing to prevent them from absorbing moisture during use. Metal frames are much more desirable; however, they are more expensive than wooden frames and, if made light enough, tend to flex under loading rather than providing a rigid framework for the snowshoe.
The webbing used with many prior art snowshoes is a network of woven strands of rawhide or, in some cases, a synthetic polymeric material. The rawhide bindings tend to stretch when wet, loosening the webbing, and thus require constant adjustment. The synthetic material tends to stretch and abrades against itself where it overlaps, and thus is subject to breakage. Some of the recently available snowshoes have substituted a fabric decking for the conventional webbing. However, the fabric is still laced to the snowshoe frame, usually with a continuous strand of lacing material, the breaking strength of which exceeds the tear strength of the fabric. Thus the material can tear away from the fabric causing webbing failure. When the webbing or continuous lacing of such prior art snowshoes breaks, the webbing or lacing will loosen from the frame, eventually releasing a major portion or all of the webbing or decking from the frame, as well as loosening or releasing the binding from the snowshoe, rendering the snowshoe unusable.
The bindings of presently available snowshoes can be adjusted for a given wearer's boot and some bindings incorporate crude hinges to allow the boot heel of the wearer to swing upwardly and forwardly during use. Other bindings have more sophisticated hinges, but are significantly more expensive to produce than the relatively crude conventional hinges. However, at least one prior art binding is constructed to allow only the aforementioned swinging movement about the hinge in the binding and does not allow lateral movement of the boot heel in the binding during use. When a snowshoer changes from a side hill traverse of one slope to a side hill traverse of the opposite slope, he many times desires to change his boot position in the binding. However, with prior art bindings he is required to stop and readjust his bindings to provide the proper boot angle relative to the longitudinal dimension of the snowshoe. Some of the prior art bindings in fact will not even accommodate such lateral adjustments of the boot heel within the binding. Other prior art bindings do allow lateral heel movement, but do not restrain the boot at any boot position, thus rendering the snowshoe unstable and relatively hard to control.
Another problem with prior art bindings is that they are not readily adjustable to varying boot sizes but require tedious relacing and, in essence, reconstruction of the binding to fit different sizes. Moreover, prior art bindings do not generally allow longitudinal adjustment of the boot on the snowshoe without major reconstruction of the binding.
To solve the problems mentioned above and other problems that are apparent to snowshoe users, it is a broad object of the present invention to provide an improved snowshoe that is engineered to accept and use current technology in materials and construction and to provide a snowshoe that is better suited to its intended use than are the prior art snowshoes. More specific objects of the present invention are to provide an improved frame that requires little or no care, that will not warp, that is not subject to structural fatigue under prolonged use, that is easily manufactured, and that can be assembled with a very minimum of labor; to provide a rigidified frame and cooperating binding that will not allow the snowshoe to cant sidewardly about a longitudinal fore and aft axis relative to the wearer's boot; to provide an improved binding that is easily adjustable both in width and longitudinal locaton on the snowshoe to accommodate varying boot sizes for the same snowshoe; to provide an improved binding that allows lateral heel movement of the boot without lateral displacement of the toe section of the boot on the snowshoe during use in order to cant the boot relative to the longitudinal axis of the snowshoe while the user is walking; to provide a self-aligning snowshoe that will track straight on level terrain after each step even though the boot heel may have been laterally displaced during the previous step; to provide a rigid gripping member on the frame for improving traction regardless of the boot position relative to the shoe and the snow surface; to provide an improved decking for increased flotation on the snow, and a decking with significantly increased durability over those of the prior art; to provide an improved means for tieing the decking to the frame to eliminate problems associated with webbing or lacing breakage on prior art snowshoes; to provide an improved means for tieing the decking to the shoe that is readily adaptable to field repair without the need for substantial quantities of additional lacing material or special tools; to provide an improved tieing means that will not tend to tear the decking at its point of attachment to the decking; to provide such an improved tieing means that is wear resistant; to provide such an improved tieing means that, upon even partial failure, will not seriously hamper the use of the shoe; and to provide a snowshoe design that is readily adaptable to production and sale in a kit form for assembly by the consumer, thereby lowering the capital outlay required to outfit the consumer in a snowshoe.